Carter left part of his heart in South Africa

As you can imagine, Carter is on a post-trip high!  He was grinning ear to ear when we picked him up yesterday afternoon. Big praise, the storms held off and actually seemed to push their plane--they landed 25 minutes early :)

Our son surely grew 2 inches the past 10 days.  He is zooming in on 6 feet. Mike, Abby, my dad, and I met him at the airport. Carter chattered about his experiences.  He loved the little children at the daycare/community center in Khula that they worked with.  He said they were so smart and fun. He was also impressed with the beauty of the landscape and the monkey eating a banana on the roadside.  And, he got to play in the rough waves in the Indian Ocean!

Khula is a very poor area that is highly impacted by the AIDS crisis.  According to Children of Hope (by Vernon Brewer), South Africa alone has 1.2 million orphans due to parents dying of AIDS.  In fact, this very morning our pastor sent an email from the woman in charge of the children at Khula.  Her friend died yesterday and left 2 children, ages 12 and 6. 

Carter's favorite little girl was a 3yr old named Samgen.  He said "she is the most beautiful little African girl I've ever seen."  It appears that she is the caretaker for an angry, traumatized 2yr old who is orphaned and living with  neighbors.  The child has scars on his face from another child intentionally burning his face. Carter said he tried to get the little boy to warm up to him, but the child was so angry at everyone.  Below is a picture of him hanging out with a cutie pie(the child seems to be thinking--who is this strange teenager!)

We have very few pictures at the present but will upload some good ones as soon as we can.  Our pastor said Carter worked his tail off, was so good with the children, and was very flexible(I preached to him before he left that the most important attribute one needs when going on a mission trip overseas is flexibility). He said he'd promised himself that he wouldn't complain.  The hospice center for people dying of AIDS was very sad.  He said he had a hard time talking to the people there because he knew that he had no idea what they were going through. Last night Carter told me "Thank you so much for sending me."  I asked what he thought about going without parents.  He said it was good because he had to be a responsible man.  He wants to return ASAP.  We asked him that for next Spring Break, if presented with a ski trip with friends or returning to South Africa, what would he choose.  He had no reservations and would choose S. Africa.